Jerralds to GCAACC’s Rescue?

Hours before his scheduled meeting this afternoon to discuss “resuscitating” the Gulf Coast African-American Chamber of Commerce, Pensacola City Councilman John Jerralds is taking it easy.

“Who me?” Jerralds said. “I’m relaxing.”

The councilman said he had attended to some morning business and was now relaxing at home, looking forward to the 3 p.m. meeting. He referenced a press release he had sent out yesterday which stated his intentions to “reinvent” the chamber.

“I don’t know if that’s the new buzz-word,” Jerralds said, adding that the desire to change things at the chamber was shared by a wider community.

The current leadership at the GCAACC, headed up by Chairman George Hawthorne, isn’t adequately serving the black community according to Jerralds. The councilman said the organization should be “more visible, more accountable.” Hawthorne, meanwhile, complained early today about Jerralds not being a GCAACC member; he said he had no idea what today’s meeting is going to entail.

“It’s going to turn into a referendum on his record,” Hawthorne said, predicting that today’s meeting will focus on what he views as Councilman Jerralds poor track record when it comes to representing the city’s black community.

Relaxing at home, the councilman thinks the affair will go differently.

“If it’s fallen apart,” Jerralds said of the GCAACC, “I’ll take the responsibility of coming to its assistance and resuscitating it.”

The meeting will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. today at Pensacola City Hall.